Ecclesiastes 7:19-8:1

English Standard Version Anglicised

^19 (A)Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.

²⁰ Surely ^(B)there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

²¹ Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear ^(C)your servant cursing you. ²² Your heart knows that ^(D)many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³ All this I have tested by wisdom. ^(E)I said, “I will be wise”, but it was far from me. ²⁴ That which has been is far off, and ^(F)deep, very deep; ^(G)who can find it out?

^25 (H)I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. ²⁶ And I find something more ^(I)bitter than death: ^(J)the woman whose heart is ^(K)snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but ^(L)the sinner is taken by her. ²⁷ Behold, this is what I found, says ^(M)the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— ²⁸ which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. ^(N)One man among a thousand I found, but ^(O)a woman among all these I have not found. ²⁹ See, this alone I found, that ^(P)God made man upright, but ^(Q)they have sought out many schemes.

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